Twitter, the micro-blogging, real-time messaging platform, has become big business. The social media magnet managed to close on a $35 million round of venture capital on top of the $20 million it had already raised is growing proof that Twitter has some pretty big plans taking shape.

Everybody wants in. Twitter’s lure even has big corporations joining the service. “There are companies and brands depending on it more and more, and finding the insights valuable in how they make decisions,” said co-founder Biz Stone.

It would seem that Twitter might be able to benefit from selling services to corporate America, but no, their plans are much more focused than that. In fact, Twitter just might end up giving Google a run for its money.

The second-largest search source.  In 2007, Twitter bought search engine Summize and has even began using the search feature with certain user accounts. Federated Media CEO John Battelle recognizes that Twitter has become the second largest source of search queries with one big difference: Twitter allows users to search real-time conversation.

“Twitter owns its own search which is more valuable than Twitter itself,” says Howard Lindson, an entrepreneur who launched a Twitter-based business, Stock Twits.

One thing is for certain: while much of Twitter’s true potential remains to be seen, it will certainly be big

Lots of professionals use social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to network and connect with others personally and professionally. The downward spiraling economy has resulted in thousands of lost jobs. Participation on these sites has skyrocketed as a result.

Reaching beyond your direct network
“I think we have only just scratched the surface of using social networking for job hunting,” says Matt Hicks, a spokesperson for Facebook. “People are now going beyond their direct network and reaching that next layer of people that may have interest in getting a job with your company, but may be hard to reach through traditional media.

Job loss numbers are climbing
Many more people are out of a job now than this time last year, so obviously more people are looking. The plummeting stock market is what started the first wave of layoffs, leaving 533,000 people jobless during the month of November. The Department of Labor Statistics tell us that since December 2007, 2.7 million Americans have lost their jobs.

Get connected
In these troubled economic times, it’s more important than ever for people to stay connected with their personal and professional networks. Hicks explains, “It’s harder to find jobs and times are tough. People naturally want to stay in touch not only to find the next job, but even to get advice.”

Mainstream and broad-based radio station formats perform better than smaller niche-based formats in metered ratings is largely determined by the main metric used to describe the audiences: the relationship between “cume” and Time Spent Listening (TSL).

Just about every station in PPM markets will experience a significant cume increase because the meter will clearly show that people are listening to twice as many stations than are being recorded in the diary.

Conversely, the meter reports a dramatic TSL because the meter shows that people are listening to more stations, but for shorter amounts of time.

Making the switch
As a matter of fact, the TSL declines are so dramatic that Average Quarter Hour Persons (AQH), the relationship between the cume and TSL, shows lower results across the board with the PPM.

“We used to see people write down 50 hours of listening to one station,” said Charlie Sislen, President of Research Director, Inc. “Stations that were running on their great Time Spent Listening in a diary-based world have to adjust their format for more than big-cume stations.”

Keeping the listeners happy
PM forces many broadcasters to rethink their business model to meet the challenges of the new methodology.

Sislen says, “Stations can’t rely on an emotional relationship with listeners. Personalities have to be tight and concise. If they start to ramble, people turn them off and the meter picks that up. ”

There’s a real connect (as opposed to a disconnect) that needs to take place between the stations and their listeners. “High TSL radio stations need to be more conscious of what’s going on-air than they were before. They have to make sure they’re not blowing off listeners,” added Sislen.

Arbitron’s portable people meter radio ratings service (PPM), stations with a broad appeal and majority male listening audience perform better in the transition from diary to electronic audience measurement.

Stations that rely on a small core audience of listeners for long periods of time get lower ratings for the PPM service compared to the diary.

A radio research study
These findings are highlights of a new format-share study by Research Director, Inc. for Radio and Records which is part of The Nielsen Company. This study focuses on comparing diary and PPM ratings across principle formats in eight major PPM markets. Cities included New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Dallas, Atlanta and Detroit.

The future of measuring radio audiences
By the end of 2008, Arbitron will be measuring radio audiences using the portable people meter in 14 markets. In 2009, 19 additional markets are planning to make the switch, and the change will continue rolling out to the top 50 major markets by the end of 2010.

An unexpected by-product of the current financial crisis has been the rate of advertising by banks, investment firms and other financial institutions. This media buying push is designed to reassure anxious investors, business partners and customers during these troubled times.

Financial publications report an advertising increase. Perhaps a big advertising push may actually seem to be the opposite of what these financial institutions should be doing in light of the recent bank bailouts and public perception of their tactics and actions.

But nevertheless, financial institutions are running ad campaigns in various business publications such as The Financial Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and many financial trade publications.

Bruce Rogers, VP of Marketing at Forbes.com explains it this way, “The bigger players who are remaining have a really complicated story to tell and need to get out there in a big way.”

Increasing consumer confidence. Forbes.com says it has seen an increase in advertising in the past few weeks from the big players like Bank of America who recently announced plans to take over Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.

Rogers adds this: “The companies remaining will have to be out there with a story that says, ‘We are a safe and stable financial institution.’” This is, in fact, the message being communicated by many of the financial institutions still standing.

In this fledgling economy, a noticeable shift in consumer purchasing has become apparent: Shoppers are taking drastic steps to save money: trading down SUVs in favor of economical vehicles and going from designer labels to private labels. (See Peter Koeppel’s ERA article on the decline in consumer spending.)

Consumer confidence tumbles. Climbing gas and food prices, an unstable real estate market and a looming credit crisis have resulted in the lowest consumer spending in several years according to a recent Wall Street Journal article.

The article reports that consumer confidence has plummeted to a mere 38 percent since it first peaked with 57 percent of consumers revealing to an annual survey that their finances had become even worse. This is the highest reported figure since the survey began back in 1946.

Profiting during troubled times. Despite the dismal economic forecast, some retailers still managed to make a profit. Discount stores like Walmart, Dollar General and Family Dollar Stores have managed increased sales.

And even though American car manufacturers have taken a hard hit financially as more motorists downgrade their vehicles for more fuel efficient models, Japanese car manufacturers Toyota and Honda are reaping profits with certain models. The Toyota Corolla is currently the number-one selling car in the U.S.

Why are these figures and trends so important in our world of direct response television and media buying? It’s so important for retailers to pay close attention to consumer spending trends. For example, are shoppers participating more in one-stop shopping, buying groceries once a week to save gas, making more bulk purchases, using coupons and comparison shopping to find the best deals?

Savvy marketers appeal to shoppers based on changes in their spending habits. This is key to success as they compete in this changing market – that much has not changed.

DRTV spots are 60 or 120 second commercials that educate consumers about a particular product or service, its features and benefits.

Media buyers can effectively reach their target audience by purchasing premium timeslots on local broadcast and national cable and satellite stations.

State the problem and offer consumers a solution… DRTV media buyers understand that the formula for a successful DRTV campaign sets up a problem and solution scenario for consumers within the first seven seconds of the infomercial. The ad identifies a universal problem that appeals to the target audience.

Questions and answers. Many times the problem is set up as a general question such as, “Are you tired of weight loss products that just don’t work?” This kind of question instantly gets the attention of consumers struggling with weight loss. The ad introduces the product as the solution, “Then you need Product X!”

After the problem and solution are introduced, the remaining time is spent persuading the audience members about why they should buy Product X right now. Successful techniques include creating a sense of urgency (e.g. a limited time special offer), or testimonials from other satisfied consumers who practically guarantee the product.

Don’t wait – call now! The infomercial ends with a call to action, encouraging consumers to take action right away. A toll-free number and/or website address flashes on the TV screen within 15 seconds after the start of the spot. This information is introduced well before the pricing information.

DRTV is a carefully formulated vehicle media buyers can use to introduce a product and communicate its effectiveness to consumers. Success with DRTV depends heavily on the right product, a great offer and an effective message that resonates with consumers.

Savvy media buyers are well-aware that the Internet is continuing to rapidly change the way consumers receive, process and share information.

More than ever before, we are being bombarded with news and information from a variety of media sources. Technological advances in media development allow people to remain current with everything from global news reports to local traffic and weather updates while also getting their information and multitasking through other media sources.

Survey says…According to a recent BIGresearch Simultaneous Media Survey, consumers are relying less on television as a motivator to purchase new products. Instead, they are looking to alternative media sources such as web radio, satellite radio, blogging and instant messaging to get information and insight into various products and services.

TV has traditionally been the standard platform for branding name brand products – and it will always hold a significant place in the world of advertising and media buying. To effectively reach consumers in a declining economy, media buyers and their clients must target the right audience at the right time with the right value – while be open to all media options.

Amid an avalanche of bad economic news, including the subprime mortgage meltdown, the loss of 80,000 jobs in March and record home foreclosure rates, I set out to find a business that is thriving despite the economic turmoil. That business is video games and the major player in that marketplace is GameStop.
 
GameStop’s sales grew from $5.3 billion in 2006 to $7.1 billion in 2007 and their profit rose to $288 million from $158 million the prior year, according to an article in the Dallas Morning News (DMN) on April 8, 2008. GameStop plans to open 600 stores in 2008 and sales are expected to increase at about 20% (DMN). That’s a significant level of growth compared to many other stores that are issuing earnings warnings. And there are several big name releases that are planned for 2008 that should continue to propel the growth of the industry.
 
During the last recession in 2001, overall video game sales went from $8 billion in 2000 to $10.3 billion in 2001 and to $11.7 billion in 2002. At $50 to $60 a game, it’s a relatively cheap form of entertainment, since people play the average video game for 20 to 40 hours (DMN). And during difficult times people tend to spend more time at home consuming media such as video and online games, TV and movies.
 
Like every business, GameStop will face some challenges in the coming year, since there are no major hardware launches planned and the popular Wii console will be more readily available at stores like Target and Wal-Mart, which could cut into GameStop’s sales. However, business among GameStop’s core customers, the hard-core gamers, should remain strong even if the soccer moms migrate to the big box retailers for their game purchases, according to Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities.

Peter Koeppel is Founder and President of Koeppel Direct, a leader in DRTV direct response television, online, print and radio media buying, marketing and campaign management. With a Wharton MBA and over 25 years of marketing and advertising experience, Peter has helped Fortune 500 companies, small businesses and entrepreneurs develop direct marketing campaigns to increase profits.

Peter started Koeppel Direct in 1995 and has built it into one of the leading infomercial direct response media buying firms in the U.S.
 

Minnesota’s Star Tribune reported on March 2 that despite this year’s intense presidential election, some, like Brown University Professor Darrel West, still say that TV commercials are playing a reduced role in the election.

According to Brown, who wrote a book on presidential political advertising titled “Air Wars,” the 2008 election is based on critical issues such as the war in Iraq and the U.S. economy. Brown argues that these are two messages that are not easily spun in political commercials. Instead, Brown believes candidates are using debates and rhetoric to draw voters to the polls.

That said, no one disputes that TV advertising remains the bedrock of political advertising, and specifically of presidential campaign and election advertising.

One thing is for certain, the nature of the 2008 campaign is different from anything we as a country have ever known before. While TV is still king, we now also have the inclusion and prominence of You Tube, online social networks like Facebook and My Space, the presidential candidates’ own websites and web forums and all sorts of other means of online political and campaign advertising.

Everyone agrees that political ads that may have ‘cut the mustard” in, say, the 2004 presidential campaign just won’t work today. That’s a function of our ever-changing online political advertising climate plus the fact we do not have an incumbent or “shoe-in” running in this up-for-grabs presidential election year.